Machine summary:
"In the introduction of the book entitled 'Panorama of Iranian Economy, Past and Present', Azimi reveals certain facts through statistics, then discusses variables of population, and unemployment.
These include the acute weakness of the educational system, political instability during last few decades, lack of comprehension of economic development, governmental administrative and executive difficulties, weak production structure.
John Foran, (translated by Ahmad Tadin), Fragile Resistance, Social Transformation in Iran from 1500 to the Revolution, Boulder: Westview Press, 1993, 628 pages.
The most pivotal question raised by Iranologists in the last 100 years is why has Iran been left behind the caravan of human civilization at the political, social, economic and cultural levels'?
Included in this category of Iranian social history of Iran is the book by John Foran.
The synthetic and codifying framework has given him a free hand to investigate various aspects of the history of Iran and the factors that affected them over a long period of social and political development.
Apart from the methodological and contextual ohjections that can be raised against the book, two questions can help us better understand the causes of political instability in the contemporary history of Iran.
Foran writes, " All the main and comprehensive social movements of Iran during the period under investigation were based on extensive sociul foundations, which I call popular unions.
" Foran regards even the disintegration of the Safavid government to be due to interwoven social, political and economic crises and also the dissatisfaction of various elite segments of the Iranian Empire."